HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1981-07-08, Page 2MOST IMPROVED ATHLSTE-i-David Demaray and Andrea Haasnoot
received the awards for most irtiproved male and female athlete when
Grey Central held its Gracie 8', graduating exercises. Presenting the
awards was the teacher Bob Livermore. , (Photo by Ranney)
Behind the scenes
by Keith Roulston
EST,.N.
1872
russels Post
BRUSSELS
ONT,
Box 50,
Brussels, Ontario Established 1872 519-887-6641
NOG 1 HO Serving Brussels and the surrounding community
Published at BRUSSELS, ONTARIO
every Wednesday morning
by McLean Bros. Publishers Limited
Andrew Y, McLean, Publisher
Evelyn Kennedy, Editor
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario
Weekly Newspaper Association and The Audit Bureau of
Circutation.
Authorized as second class mail by Canada
Post Office. Registration Number 0562.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 1981
Short Shots
by Evelyn Kennedy
If all the skies were sunshine
Our faces would be fain
To feel once more upon them
The cooling plash of rain.
-Henry van Dyke
* * * * *
This is the day (Wednesday July 8) of the
Porkchop barbecue at St. John's Anglican
Church. If you like expertly barbecued
porkchops you can get them there from 5:00
to 7:30 p.m.
* * * * *
Canada Day passed very quietly here. There
was no evidence of celebration i of any kind.
How many of us took time outito remember
just how lucky we are to be Canadians.
With all Canada's troubles it is still a good
place to be. Consider what goes on in the
rest of the world, wars, the horrendous
activities of terrorists, mass murders, the
starvation of thousands. It is time we looked
on bright side, took a look at the many
• should be grateful for.' When we
think t :.he people of the world who are
homeless and hungry we should be happy if
we have a comfortable nome and plenty to
eat without demanding luxuries. Oh yes,
Canada has problems but it is still a great
country. We are the envy of many who wish
they were Canadians and wish they had it so
good.
* * * * *
Canadians said a last farewell to Terry Fox
as his presence left us to rest at peace in a
hillside cemetery. But Terry is very much
with us in the hearts of Canadians across this
land. He will live in memory in the years to
come. A gallant youth, who, ignoring his
handicap, strove to make a dream come '
true. He gave courage and hope to those
who, like him, were the victims of cancer. He
inspired Canadians from coast to coast to
support his Marathon of Hope so research
BY DEBBIE RANNEY
There's not a lot you can take with you
when you set out for a camping trip on
horseback and if you're like Joan Van Den
Broeck and daughter Lisa of Saltford, you
may just have to settle for a bedroll, a
change of clothes and $51.65 in cash.
Mrs. Van Den Broeck and 10 year old
Lisa spent Wednesday night sleeping out,
in the open air of the Maitland Valley
Conservaton Authority Park in Brussels.
They were sustained by food given to them
by Mrs. Jack Vader, Michelle Vader and
Sherri Heibein who brought coffee,
muffins and chips and if it had rained they
had offers of accomodation from the
Vaders and Albert. Ten Pas.
"We were really pleased because people
made sure we had a good time in Brussels.
It was really pleasant," she said.
While on the road, they stop at general
stores and restaurants for food.
They had spent Tuesday night at the
East Wavvanosh Conservation area and as
they were leaving Brussels, planned to
continue their journey on to Blyth, then
Bayfield and if the money was still holding
up, perhaps even further than that.
Mrs. Van Den Broeck calls the camping
can go forward, as never before, to find the
answer to defeat the dread disease that has
now taken his life. May what he accom-
plished be not in vain.
* * *
Baseball fans have been bereft of their
game this season. Their favourite sports
figures have forsaken then in playing a game
of their own for more money. Have these
ball players forgotten whence comes the
money to pay their salaries. It is not from
club owners, or other top brass, it is from the
fans who fill the stands to watch them play
ball and from T.V. revenue. What will
happen when this strike is over? Will the
disgruntled fans come flooding back to pay
for even more expensive tickets? Will
easy-chair.fans again be in front of their T.V.
sets or will many decide they can get along •
without the thrill of baseball games.
* *it *
There is an interesting display in the
window of the building formerly occupied by
Jacob's Saddlery. It was placed there by the
Huron County Pioneer Museum of Goderich.
There is also one item displayed in the
window at Cal Krauter's Shop. If you have
not yet seen them take a look. They will tell
you something about the life of Huron ounty
pioneers.
* * * * *
No baseball to watch but hurray!- the
C.F.L. season has arrived. Thank goodness
those hefty guys who provide that sport are
not on strike. Their fans can collect the
evening's light refreshment and settle down
to watch that exciting action for weeks, and'
months to come. It is a rough game but there
is also speed,agility and skilli so far the only
eastern team to win their opening game of
the season was Hamilton.
* * * * *
Police in the U.S. stopped the driver of an
18-wheel tractor trailer after he smashed
into eight cars, injured four people and
slammed through a roadblock, only to
discover the driver was a 12-year-old boy.
trip, "a good experience for Lisa."
"It's something we always wanted to do
so we left. We aren't equipped to bring
food or anything. This is what you call
roughing it," she said.
They start out in the mornings around
9:30 or 10 o'clock and don't usually reach
their destination until 7 or 8 in the evening.
Settled on their horses--Tillie, a five year
old Palomindsaddlebred for Mrs. Van Deni
Broeck and Red, a five year old Bay
gelding for Lisa, they figure on travelling
15-20 miles per day.
They spend about $10 a day between the
two of them and in the last few days had
been spending around $9.
Mrs. Van Den Broeck's husband is a
Scouter and has gone out west with the boy
scouts for two weeks so there's no hurry
for them to get home.
As she said,"If you waited till you had
all the things you need to go on a trip like
this, you'd never go.'
Perhaps their biggest struggle is finding
a convenient place to brush their teeth.
"I don't mid sleeping on the ground and
I don't Mind riding all day, but I can't
stand it when I can't brush my teeth,"
Mrs. Van Den Broeck said.
Those of us having to live with the
consequences of the current mail strike find
it hard to have much good to say about the
Canadian Union of Postal Employees.
It is even harder to have sympathy with
the postal workers when one hears that they
are already earning more than $9 per hour as
a starting wage and want to work that up .to
$11. Now if you're an ordinary joe working
for less than that amount, the strike makes
you doubly angry.
Most of us have blamed the mess the post
office is in on the postal workers. Oh, we've
been ready to give our share of curses to the
government as well but for the most part
we've ignored the people in the middle: the
post office management. We haven't tended
to listen very well when the postal employ-
ees grumbled about the way they've been
treated by management. When the workers
complained about new automated postal
sorting equipment we thought they were just
protecting their jobs. When they worried
about being watched by closed-circuit televi-
sion cameras we thought maybe if they
worked harder they'd have nothing to worry
about. After all, it takes longer for a letter to
get from here to Toronto today in the jet age
than in the days of the horse and buggy.
I began to look at things a little differently
a couple of months back when I was listening
to a radio program that interviewed a
number of men at a reunion of post office
employees who used to work in the mail cars
of the railway lines. These particular postal
employees worked on the prairies but I'm
sure a good deal of what they had to say
would have applied everywhere in Canada.
THE ELITE
The men explained that they were
considered the elite of postal employees.
They went on board a train in one major
centre (I think it was Winnipeg) with bags of
mail destined for points along the line. They
were locked in the cars and all the time the
train was travelling they would be working,
sorting the mail that would go to this town or
that. Along the way there would be stops in
towns to drop off the mail for that town and
pick up 'outgoing mail. There was also a slot
in the door where someone could mail a
letter directly.
The mail bags brought on at each stop
would then be sorted as the train travelled to
the next town and probably if you mailed a
letter at one town along the line for the next
town say 20 miles distant, it would be there
Continued from page 1
Hurricane Hazel tlood line.
The flood way is to be maintained as an
Open Space corridor for recreation and
visual enjoyment by the community. The
flood fringe may be considered for urban
development* subject to certain policies. •
The two zone approach allows some
flexibility for filling and deVdlopment in the
floodplain by relating the level of restriction
to the degree of risk.
Mr, Dzus said they were trying to clean up
the floodplain policy that council and the
Authority had agreed to Some time ago and
in less than an hour. Today of course it could
take days.
By the time the train had reached its final
destination the mail car employees would
get off with all the mail sorted ready for
speedy delivery. Today trucks have replaced
the train and all the mail would likely be
picked up, trucked all the way to Winnipeg,
sorted by machine and (if the letter wasn't
mangled in the equipment) be shipped back
out by the next truck. A letter that once
travelled 20 miles to its destination may
today go hundreds.
MORE EFFICIENT
Now I'm no insider when it comes to the
history of the post office but I think I can bet
what happened. Somebody decided that the
post office had to be more efficient and the
example of efficiency as based on the
example of industry was to centralize and
automize. There is efficiency in scale so why
not build huge postal stations where all the
sorting can be done instead of in mail cars
and all those little post offices. Industry
proved machines are more efficient than
men so bring in the computerized, electronic
wizzard to replace people. So today we have
a situation where something like half the
mail in Canada passes through one huge
sorting plant in the Toronto area.
The problem is, the post office isn't like
any other industry. Industry could centralize
for efficiency by simply taking the cream off
the crop. To hell with the little towns out in
the sticks when you can get all the business
you need at low cost in the industrial
heartland or Toronto, Hamilton and so on.
But the post office to do its job must still
serve all those little inefficient towns 'and
villages and hamlets, must reach all those
farmers on their rural routes. It's not
economical and would make an efficiency
expert faint dead away but the post office
simply must continue to serve all the people.
But as long as you have such a decentralized
organization you cannot apply the same
rules of efficiency that business schools
generally teach. It seems to me that is where
the post office made its first mistake and in
making that one decision to centralize mail
sorting it has set the course to the mess
we're in.
It still doesn't make me feel any better
about postal workers getting $9 an hour but
at least it might make their frustration more
understandable. We're all just as frustrated.
in doing that, they should be able to finalize
the secondary plan.
He'said it should also open the way to get
approval for the new subdivision (McDonald
-Bryans-Krauter) at the south end of town.
The secondary plan was only given partial
approval previously because the government
wanted more definite floodlines.
Mr. Dzus said those areas marginally
affected by flooding can be developed with
floodproofing measures and that both the
Planning Department and the, Conservation
Authority were prepared to go ahead with
the secondary plait.
To Brussels, by horseback
Will discuss mapping
iii
G
Iii
ei
VV
H
B]
St
M
be
8I
M
Ce
of
T
rE
nt
T
H
SC
et
A
SE
he
D.
er
Fi
Ri
of
M
of
Rr
ini
gr
gr
aei
W
Sa
Cr1
P.
Oft
131
cc
Co
Jed
ers